KEY WEST TO THE GULF COAST

We have been in the mooring field in Key West for more than two months. We went home for part of that time but we were ready to move on. As usual, the weather was not co-operating 100%. The winds seem to blow very strong and consistant from the North during that time of the year, which means we would have to sail, or more likely, power through 5 foot plus waves on the nose to get to the mainland Gulf coast for about 2 days. Not a very pleasant trip. The alternative is to go back East and North to Marathon and cut across the Florida Bay. Almost everyone we talked to said it is too shallow for us since we would be following the Southern coast of the mainland, which is mainly the Everglades Swamp. Everyone, except Ed and Benia. They had been cruising for many years in a larger sail boat than ours with a 6 foot draft and had made the trip several times. They have recently sold their sail boat and bought a beautiful trawler and they offered to let us tag along with them as a "buddy" boat. We left early on February 12th and headed back around Fleming Island for our last view of the Key West docks and headed South and East towards the upper keys. The weather, as usual, turned out to not be as predicted and the waves made for a somewhat uncomfortable trip, but we made it to Marathon by mid afternoon. All the moorings were taken in Boot Key, so we anchored next to Ed and Benia just inside the bridge. The anchorage was very crowded and we had to make a couple attempts before we got in a comfortable spot, or so we thought. While we waited for the anchor to set, we realized we were not floating anymore and were sitting on a sand bar. No problem. The tide came up and we drifted back for a comfortable evening. We left early the next morning and went through the pass under the 7 mile bridge into the Florida Bay with our next destination an anchorage in Shark River in the Everglades. The water was surprisingly deeper than I had anticipated and what the charts showed. The crab pots were still a challenge, however, and we wound up dragging one for a quarter of a mile or more before it floated off behind us and we realized what was slowing us down. No damage except our ego. Following the waypoints and keeping a close eye on the charts and the depthfinder, we made our way into Shark River before dark. The shores of Shark River were much more lush and the water deeper than I had anticipated. It was also extremely quiet. As the sun went down, it also became extremely dark, but the canopy of millions of stars helped light up our buddy boat Genteel as we dingied over for dinner. The next morning, we were on our way, with only a minor attack of no see-ums. We unfurled our genoa and were hitting 7 knots plus as we made our way West around the Thousand Islands and the Everglades and into the Gulf of Mexico. Genteel had the benefit of a little more speed and had decided to go all the way to Fort Myers Beach. We decided we would hop off in either Marco Island or Naples, depending on how far up the coast we got. As usual, the weather changed our plans. We spotted a fast moving storm coming in off the coast packing 60 knot winds and heavy rains. We called Genteel and warned them of the storm and decided we would hop off in Marco Island. Genteel turned around and went back to Naples and we were just trying to tie up in Marco when the storm hit. For a change, the forcast was accurate for the storm and the wind and rain beat us up while securing Manana in the slip. We had a burger at the closest restaurant we could find and called it a night. The next morning we threaded our way out of Marco Island and went back into the Gulf headed for Fort Myers Beach. It was a beautiful sail up the coast and we wound up taking a slip right behind Genteel at Moss Marina in Fort Myers Beach. We would ultimately take a mooring in the municipal mooring field, but we had to go back to Key West to get our car. We took the high speed ferry back from Fort Myers to Key West and had a nice drive back through the Keys and across Alligator Alley to get back to Fort Myers. We now had to move to the mooring and then prepare to leave the boat to go back home for a few weeks to take care of business. Fort Myers Beach is a popular Spring Break spot and the kids were just starting to arrive before we started our two day drive back to Indiana. Before we left we got a pretty good tour of the town by Ed & Benia and got to enjoy some of the reasons it is so popular. Our drive home was uneventful, but we wound up spending almost 5 weeks away from Manana and Fort Myers. Obviously, we got a lot accomplished at home, including selling the house and moving into our townhomes. On our way back, we met up with our 600 Dock friends in Fishermans Village in Punta Gorda and had a little dock party. Everett and Barb were our hosts as Dave and Stevie, Chuck and Mindy and Keith and Diane joined in the party. It was great to see everyone and we had a great dinner and, of course, a few cocktails to celebrate. Our friends Ed & Benia had been watching our boat, and when we got back, it was as if we never left. Now we have had some time to explore more of Fort Myers and the surrounding area. Here's some sights from that we've seen so far. We are planning on moving the 15th towards Punta Gorda, then to Venice and then to Sarosota and Tampa Bay area. Entering Shark River in the Everglades for the night and the sunrise as we left our anchorage. Manana in it's first slip (other than avoiding the storm in Marco Island) since October! We moved her to the mooring after we retrieved our car from Key West. A few scenes of Fort Myers Beach. Pure White Sand! Our wonderful friends Ed and Benia A sunset for Denise's Birthday! The Edison and Ford Houses amid beautiful trees and gardens, many of which they used for experiments. Wildlife everywhere at Ding Darling preserve. Shelling on Sanibel Island.

EXPLORING KEY WEST

Key West has an interesting history and an even more interesting atmosphere and lifestyle. Key West was originally named Cayo Hueso (pronounced 'kayo 'weso)by Juan Ponce De Leon (the fountain of youth guy). Even though it may have sounded like the modern day name, the Spanish name meant Bone Key. Apparently the original inhabitants of Calusa Indians used the island as a burial ground. Ownership of Key West went from Spanish to English to Spanish and then back to the U.S. Of course, there was also the Conch Republic. Key West declared it's independence from the U.S. in 1982 and formed the Conch Republic in protest against road blocks searching for illegal immigrants on Highway 1, the only land connection to the Keys. Key West has been a military post for most of it's history and still has a large military presence, but tourism has taken over and highlights it's carefree lifestyle and celebrates it's famous residents and visitors. The attraction for most of the tourists is not the history but the laid back life style, the architecture,the food, the music, the nightlife, the diversity, and of course, the bars and shops on and around Duval Street. Our goal was to try and see as much as possible of everything Key West and the Lower Keys are known for. Although the island of Key West is only about 2 miles across, there is a lot to see and do. There are historic homes, museums, nature centers, forts, beaches, quaint inns, bed and breakfasts, waterfronts, marinas and sunsets. And of course, we visited many of the restaurants and bars with an emphasis on finding the best Happy Hours. Some of the most memorable sites was Hemingway's house, The Truman White House, the eco center, Fort Zachary Taylor, the Beaches and the boardwalk along the wharfs. Around Duval Street there is Sloppy Joes, Captain Tony's, Willie T's, Kelly's (great Happy Hour!), Hogsbreath, Smoking Tuna, The Green Parrot, Grunt's Bar, Blue Heaven and many other places we didn't have the time, or the stamina to visit. On the Boardwalk, there is Alonzo's, The Boat House, Schooner's Wharf, The Turtle Crawl, The Eat it Raw Oyster Bar, and Dante's. Other than Kelly's, some of the best Happy Hours were along marina's with our favorites being Kelly's, Alonzo's and the Boat House. And of course, Pepe's, (the oldest restaurant in Key West), has the most mouthwatering baked oyster combo's ever! My Daughter, Bonnie brought her husband, Ben and my granddaughter Lila for a visit and we took them on a tall ship sunset cruise. Lila (only 20 months old) got to steer the ship and her mom and dad seemed to enjoy themselves too. We also took a trip to the Dry Tortugas to visit Fort Jefferson and did some snorkeling in what seemed the middle of nowhere. The mooring field we were in was very rough with almost constant strong winds and waves that made it a long and wet ride into shore. It was, however, the best choice for the price, considering slips were about $200 per night or more. The holding for anchoring was not very good and equally inconvenient and you still had to pay for everything such as a place to leave your dingy when you went ashore, water, showers, laundry and parking if you had a car. We got everything for $10 per night in the mooring field. The best part, as in every place we have been, was all the wonderful people we meet. Since someone said a picture is worth a thousand words, I will show you the rest of our stay in Key West in pictures. Some Classic houses in Key West Denise in No Name Bar on No Name Key Miniature Deer on No Name Key Beautiful Beach and Park Near Fort Zachary Taylor My Granddaughter Lila and her Parents Bonnie & Ben "Driving" the Jolly Rover Tall Ship Lila relaxes later as the sun goes down. Juggler on Mallery Square with sun setting. Hemingway's House... a resemblance? Fort Jefferson on our "cruise" to the Dry Tortugas Our Buddy Boat Genteel as we left for the mainland from Key West. Ed and Benia have become very good friends, but we just discovered we don't have any pictures of them! Yet!

THE NEW YEAR BEGINS

I know it's been a long time since the last blog. I got so use to blogging as we made our destinations along the way, I almost forgot that we still have a lot to do and talk about now that we are settled in for a while. We had a wonderful Christmas and a busy couple weeks back home. We got to have an evening with our fellow cruisers from back home at our house. Steve and Nancy Janette of Katherine and Bill Sellars and Jeannie Mcavoy of Nemo joined us for cocktails and pizza to catch up on all of our adventures. Bill and Jeannie had helped Steve and Nancy take Katherine to it's new home in Texas. They had left the Chicago area in September and took the river route to Mobile and then over to Texas. You can follow their adventures at http://sailingkathryn.blogspot.com/. It was great hearing about all of their travels and sharing ours. We had a lot of business to take care of while we were at home but with the Holidays and all, we never seemed to have enough time to get it all done. We planned on driving our car down to Key West to make it more convenient to get around and to come home if necessary. This meant that we had to allow a few days of travel time along the way. All in all, even though we didn't get to see everyone over the Holiday, we got to see our children and granchildren and spend time with the people we love and miss the most. I only missed seeing my brothers and sister who live in Dyer but I'm sure we can make it up another time.

Denise and her beautiful Grandaughter Kaitlyn

My equally beautiful Granddaughter Lila with her new Uke. My other sister lives in Nashville, however, and that just happened to be on the way. So our first stop was in Music City. Although we got there late, we had a wonderful visit with Sandy and her rising star friend Megan Ellis. The next morning, we headed South with the next stop being as far into Florida as we could get. After a late check in at a cheap hotel, we made Key West the next day by mid afternoon. Our friend, Greg of Ocean Ministries met us and got us back to the boat before nightfall. The boat looked no worse for the wear, except for a disguting coating of guana (bird poop)sprayed across our bimini and dodger. We have mentioned cormarants in earlier blogs, but these birds are some of the nastiest and seem to love coating everything they can in between meals. This is our first experience with them using our boat for their resting place. Yuck! We settled in the next day and got ready to see what New Years Eve in Key West was like. There were lot's of people and lot's of drinking and we had the choice of watching the Conch Shell Drop at Sloppy Joe's or the Pirate Lady drop from the masts at the marina. The Conch Shell Drop was the choice. Needless to say, there were a lot of people in Key West on New Years Eve. We were able to stay out until the conch shell dropped and then made it back to the boat shortly afterwards. Welcome 2013! Now we get to settle in and explore Key West at a more leisurely pace. There is so much to see here, we keep adding things to our list almost every day. But, along with the exploring, comes a lot of work. The first order of business was to clean up the mess the cormarants left and to devise a way of keeping them off our boat. We had left some flags flying near the spreaders that we thought was working when we were on the boat. Apparently not. Our neighbors, R.L. and Karen on Last Call had a BB gun that certainly chased them away, but you had to be on the boat to shoot them. We finally hoisted the flags in front of the mast so that they sweeped the spreaders which works fairly well, unless there is no wind. There seems to be plenty of wind though, which creates some of our other challenges. In this large and rather open mooring field, the North and Northeast winds really kick up some pretty good sized waves. Our dingy has served us well in all other mooring and anchoring situations, but here, she is too small. To keep from getting soaked on our 15 to 20 minute ride to shore, we have resorted to wearing full rain gear. The other challenge is water. There is no place to get water except at the dingy dock, which cannot be accessed on our boat. This means we had to buy some 6 gallon water jugs and haul them to the dock in our already too small dingy. Each jug weighs about 50 pounds full and are extremely difficult to get back in the dingy, onto the boat and then having to hoist them to pour into our water tanks. The extra hundred pounds does nothing to help us get the dingy through the waves either! We have figured most of the problems out, however, and the longer we are here, the more we are enjoying Key West. In an effort to keep the blog short, (and hopefully interesting) and since I have not posted in so long, I will end this one and then try to post bits in pieces of our adventures (and more pictures) in chronological order from here.